Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
Biden Fires Union Busters In Key Labour Relations Body
TONY BURKE says the new US president is already making a positive difference in labour relations
STANDING FIRM: Jesse Sharkey president of Chicago Teachers Union with Randi Weingarten president AFT Chicago Teachers Union Rally at a demo in October 2019
[Charles Edward Miller/Creative Commons]
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
IN WHAT is another victory for trade unions in the United States, President Joe Biden has fired all ten of Donald Trump’s appointees to the Federal Service Impasses Panel — a powerful labour relations body set up to arbitrate and resolve dispute between federal unions and management.
Biden took out its Trump appointees in one swoop when he demanded the resignation of union busters from the panel. Eight resigned and two who refused were fired.
Trump’s appointees, all anti-union activists, had blocked the right of unions to organise and to undertake collective bargaining.
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